SolutionBase: Selecting the most cost-effective office software for your Mac

Microsoft's done well improving Office compatibility for Mac users with Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, but does it serve your organization's office software needs? Based on the popular OpenOffice.org office suite, NeoOffice provides Mac users with a capable alternative to Microsoft Office. Erik Eckel takes a look at what you can do to make the Mac more acceptable in a corporate setting from an application compatibility standpoint.

For a long time, the main argument against using Macs in an
organization rather than Windows-based PCs involved compatibility. If Mac users
couldn't easily exchange information with Windows clients — particularly
Office files such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint
presentations — any advantages gained on the Apple platform were moot. In this
article, we'll take a look at what you can do to make the Mac more acceptable
in a corporate setting from an application compatibility standpoint.

Office compatibility is key

Microsoft Office made its way to the Mac, of course.
Although Microsoft released Microsoft Office 1 for Apple users back in 1990,
some compatibility issues remained. Before the rise of the Internet, and the
ability to easily e-mail Office files as compatible attachments arrived,
sharing files between the two platforms proved difficult. Often, a third-party
application was required.

Even with the recent release of Microsoft Office 2004 for
Mac and an additional 14 years of development, strange anomalies occasionally arise.
Despite the popularity of new Web 2.0 initiatives that simplify and encourage
compatibility regardless of client OS, issues still exist. For example, complex
Microsoft Excel files don't always display or function 100 percent perfectly in
Windows the way they do on the Mac (or vice versa), and some significant
differences exist between Microsoft's Windows Outlook e-mail program and the
Mac's Entourage counterpart. PDA synchronization and Exchange connectivity are just
two examples. However, the vast majority of Word documents, Excel spreadsheets
and PowerPoint presentations perform equally well on Macs and Windows systems,
and Entourage has proven to be a worthy Outlook option on the Apple.

Microsoft's done well improving Office compatibility for Mac
users. Experiences are almost universally consistent opening, editing, and
printing the same file on both platforms. Best of all, whether Apple users
select PowerPC- or Intel-powered Macintosh machines, Microsoft provides an
Office platform to meet their needs. This is true whether Intel-powered Mac
users choose to load Windows on their Apples or not; also, in late 2007,
Microsoft will release Office 2008 for Mac users, thereby ensuring Apple
systems receive access to the same new streamlined user interface and new
XML-based file formats sure to revolutionize Office productivity software.

NeoOffice: An open source alternative

Based on the popular OpenOffice.org office suite, NeoOffice provides Mac users with a capable alternative to
Microsoft Office. Better yet, the office productivity suite, which includes a
word processor, spreadsheet, slideshow, and drawing applications, is
distributed free under General Public License. The software is also available
in several languages, including Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian,
Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

The goal of the NeoOffice
project, which is led by Patrick Luby and Edward Peterlin, is to build a "reasonably stable version"
of the OpenOffice.org tools that works well on Mac OS X. Volunteerism, both on Luby's and Peterlin's part,
powers the project. As a result, contributions and refinements are often the
result of charitable efforts others (including well-intended developers) make
to the project.

Therefore, NeoOffice development
works much like that of other open source applications. As bugs are found,
users are encouraged to submit patches. Further, the team leverages Bugzilla to organize bug reports and repairs from abroad. As
additional functionality is requested, the team solicits donations to fund development
of the new features (such as adding native Mac OS X spellchecker support).

Meanwhile, NeoOffice also
leverages robust Wikis and online forums
to keep users and contributing developers abreast of updates, new patches,
changes, and fixes. Currently, NeoOffice is
distributing version 2.1. Donations are requested, prior to downloading the
office suite, but they are not required.

Running NeoOffice

To run NeoOffice, users must
possess an Apple computer (versions are available for both PowerPC and Intel
models) running Mac OS X (version 10.3 or higher), 512 MB of memory and at
least 400 MB of free disk space. The download file itself is relatively
compact, measuring just 139 MB.

Once loaded, NeoOffice proves a
capable alternative to Microsoft Office. In addition to proving compatible with
older versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, the open source alternative also
enables opening, editing, and saving Microsoft Office 2007 Word-formatted files,
and now supports Excel macros.

Original, earlier versions of NeoOffice
shipped as NeoOffice/J. Since the first versions were
released, significant improvements have been made in compatibility and
performance. Users who may have experimented with earlier versions owe it to
themselves to download and test version 2.1.

Microsoft Office vs. NeoOffice: A performance comparison

The NeoOffice build team claims
that text layout and drawing speed are two to two-and-a-half times faster when
using version 2.1 with the latest patches. In addition, the program now uses
less CPU cycles and completes print operations more quickly.

Nevertheless, Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac still
outperforms the open source upstart. In fact, the two applications aren't even
close when it comes to speed.

In my informal tests, conducted on a Mac OS X Tiger (version
10.4)-powered G4 PowerBook using the latest NeoOffice
performance patches, Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac proved definitively faster.
For example, initially opening Microsoft Word and Excel required only nine
seconds. In other words, the first time I opened Word or Excel following a
reboot, the application required only nine seconds to fully complete loading. NeoOffice, on the other hand, required 32 seconds to fully
load.

Secondary loads — or the time required to start Word or
Excel a second time after originally having opened and closed the application —
required only two seconds. Secondary loads of NeoOffice,
however, consumed 18 seconds.

NeoOffice, opening the same
identical files, doesn't compare favorably. Opening the Excel file prompted NeoOffice to establish 18 threads to the CPU, while
consuming .1% of CPU capacity, 99 MB of RAM, and 1.15 GB of virtual memory.
Upon opening the Word file, NeoOffice established 18
threads to the CPU and consumed .1% of CPU capacity, 170.33 MB of RAM, and
1.15GB of virtual memory. Figure A shows
some of the results of my informal testing.

Figure A

Thus, informal tests demonstrate just how much more
efficient Microsoft Office operates. Does that mean business and even
residential or small office users should avoid NeoOffice,
though? Definitely not.

NeoOffice provides a capable
alternative to Microsoft Office. Organizations that are particularly budget-conscious
will find NeoOffice an effective substitute. If users
can spare an extra 15 seconds a day waiting for NeoOffice
to initially load, they'll find the application quite capable of providing functionality
and compatibility comparable to Microsoft Office.

Cost comparison

Considering that the average retail price for a full version
of Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac runs $399.99 per desktop, it's easy to see how
a small business with 15 employees could easily free $6,000 in the technology
budget: Convert systems to NeoOffice.

Ultimately, as in the past, the issue should be determined
based on compatibility. NeoOffice is an open source,
volunteer-led initiative; bugs will inevitably be found, and the software won't
always work perfectly. Thus, costs must be measured not only in dollar amounts,
but also in employee time. While opting for NeoOffice
might enable an organization to save on licensing costs, if employees must
regularly reformat or otherwise rework files due to incompatibilities, choosing
the open source alternative won't prove the most cost-effective decision in the
long run.

When using Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, compatibility
issues are less likely to occur, especially when sharing complex documents or
spreadsheets between the Mac and Windows platforms.

Summary

In all likelihood, organizations deploying Apple computers
won't be pressed for cash, so companies that require complete compatibility
when using intricate and complex Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and
PowerPoint presentations should opt for Microsoft Office for Mac.

Other organizations that typically share only basic Word,
Excel, and PowerPoint files, however, will find NeoOffice
a capable alternative. In choosing the open source platform, funds that would
otherwise have been dedicated to purchasing Microsoft licenses can easily be
diverted to helping fund NeoOffice performance
improvements and purchasing additional memory for existing Macs, thereby
enabling a smoother NeoOffice experience.

About Erik Eckel

Erik Eckel owns and operates two technology companies. As a managing partner with Louisville Geek, he works daily as an IT consultant to assist small businesses in overcoming technology challenges and maximizing IT investments. He is also president o...

Full Bio

Erik Eckel owns and operates two technology companies. As a managing partner with Louisville Geek, he works daily as an IT consultant to assist small businesses in overcoming technology challenges and maximizing IT investments. He is also president of Eckel Media Corp., a communications company specializing in public relations and technical authoring projects.